Incineroar Gets Invited
by Empoleon66
Summary: The 2018 Smash tournament from the POV of fighter #69, Incineroar (read & review)
1. The Invite

The crowd in the arena was roaring as the PCWL (Pokémon Championship Wrestling Leauge, that is) champion, Incineroar, was tearing up another opponent. Grabbing the Hitmonchan he was facing by the throat, he threw the boxing Pokémon into the ropes and hit him with a stiff lariat off the rebound!

"Ooh! What a lariat!" Chatot, a member of the commentary team, exclaimed.

"He nearly knocked Hitmonchan's head off with that maneuver!" Exploud, his partner, added in.

With his opponent writhing on the mat in pain, the Heel Pokémon climbed up onto the top turnbuckle. Raising his arms in the air, he leaped off the top rope, flipped in the air, and came crashing down onto Hitmonchan!

"And there it is: The Malicious Moonsault!"

"Stick a fork in it! This match is over!"

With Hitmonchan knocked clean out, Incineroar pinned his opponent's shoulders to the mat. The referee, Zebstrika, slapped his hoof on the mat three times, signaling the end of the match.

 _"_ _Here is your winner and still the PCWL Champion: Incineroar!"_

"Another dominant showing by our champion," Chatot said.

"Indeed," Exploud agreed. "Twenty title defenses in the past twenty weeks by our champion and they've all ended the same way: with Incineroar's opponent lying on their back."

After his title was handed back to him, Incineroar slid out of the ring and headed to the back where Gardevoir was waiting for him with a microphone in her hand.

"Excuse me, Mister Incineroar, but do you have anything to say about your title defense tonight?" Incineroar took the microphone, thought for a moment, before speaking. "Honestly...I'm pissed."

"Pissed? But why?"

"That Hitmonchan was a joke! He couldn't have beaten me if I had both arms tied behind my back! Seriously, the last several challengers to the belt around my waist," Incineroar said, referring to the black and gold championship belt he wore over his fire belt, "were not worth my time! That Meinfoo I fought last week didn't last a full minute before falling to me! And this week's challenger was hardly any better. I demand actual competition!" Incineroar growled into the mic before storming off to the locker room. Little did he know that he wasn't the only one heading to the locker room...

Incineroar sat on a bench in the locker room alone (the other wrestlers, aware of the champ's foul mood, found it wise to give him some space), staring at his belt.

"I'm a fighting champion," he murmured to himself, "but the fights I'm put into are too easy. Sweet Arceus, I need an actual challenge..."

"And I'm here to offer you one," a voice told him.

Incineroar looked up and saw who was talking to him: a fellow Pokémon in Lucario with an envelope with a red seal on it in his paws. Upon seeing him, Incineroar furrowed his brow

"Haven't I seen you before?"

"Perhaps. I was once a participant in this league. And I was a champion just like you were."

"Oh yea, I've heard of you. You're the 'Aura Pokémon'."

"That's correct."

"You haven't been seen in these parts in a decade! What have you been doing all this time?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk about that. You see, for the past decade, I've participated in these tournaments called 'Smash Bros. Tournaments'. And you've been invited to participate in the newest tourney," Lucario told him, handing him the envelope. Incineroar took it, ripped it open with his claws and read it to himself.

"Hmm...'we're aware of and are quite impressed by your passion, strength and spirit for fighting'...'we'd be honored if you participated in the next tournament in December...'"

Incineroar took his eyes off of the letter and placed them on Lucario. "They've heard of me?"

"More specifically, I've heard of you. I've read your aura-"

"Kinda creepy."

"Anyway, your aura radiates with a burning spirit to fight. So, I put in a good word for you. I heard your complaints about not receiving competition. Well, I've come bearing an invitation to receive some."

"Define 'competition'."

"Well, if you accept, you'll be facing many tough competitors: a pink blob with the ability to suck up matter like a black hole, an explosive device-utilizing mercenary, a giant fire-breathing turtle, a hedgehog that can run at the speed of light, a goddess and so many more!"

"Hmm..."

"If it helps your decision, you'll be staying at a cushy mansion during the tournament. I also may add that if you win, the rewards are quite handsome."

Incineroar stood up and looked at Lucario. "Know what? I'm in."

"Really?"

"Not for the mansion or the pay, though. I'm doing this for the competition. I'm not getting it here, but if you're saying that I'll be getting competition at this tournament..."

"Excellent. If you'll come with me, we can get you registered."

As the two exited the locker room, they passed Hitmonchan, who was being helped to the back after the beating he received earlier.

"Hey," Incineroar called to Hitmonchan, "I'm outta here. You're the new champion now," he told him, flinging the belt at him. The belt clocked the Boxing Pokémon in the jaw, knocking him out again.

As several wrestlers rushed to the new champion's aid, Lucario turned to Incineroar. "You know, one of the participants in the tournament is a boxer like Hitmonchan. His name's Little Mac."

"Is he any good?"

"He can turn into a monstrous boxer that can throw out about a hundred punches a minute."

"Yea, that works for me."

 **(Author's Note: I'm extremely hyped for Incineroar's debut in Smash. I hope you enjoyed this little story I came up with. Leave your thoughts in the comment section and let me know if I should expand this story. Peace out.)**


	2. Opening Ceremonies

**"** **Welcome to the 2018 Smash Bros. Tournament!"**

The audience in the stadium roared with cheers. The 32 competitors in the tournament all stood in the center of the stadium floor. Incineroar glanced around at the other 31 competitors vying for the victory alongside him. Lucario was right; he'd definitely find competition here.

Among those there were: a penguin-creature-thing with a giant hammer, two Arctic explorers who also weld hammers, a green dinosaur, a goddess, a purple dragon as well as the one who brought him here: Lucario. All in all, he'd definitely be getting a challenge.

"Now please welcome the co-heads of the tournament: Master Hand and Crazy Hand!"

Everyone applauded as the two made their way up to the podium. Confused, Incineroar turned to Lucario.

"These are the leaders of the tournament?"

"Yep?"

"Two giant gloved hands?!"

"Yea. Just go with it."

"Mmm."

"Welcome to the opening ceremony for the 2018 Smash Tournament!" Crazy Hand shouted in the mic, garnering cheers.

"First off, we'd like to congratulate each competitor for being invited to compete. To be invited, you had to have shown some amazing fighting skills. Even if you get eliminated in the first round, you are a definite winner for being nominated. So, give yourself a...well...me!" Master Hand joked.

After the applause and laughter died down, Master Hand continued. "Now, this will be a 32 man single elimination tournament. If you lose your fight, then I'm sorry, but-"

 **"** **YOU WILL DIE!"** Crazy Hand screamed into the mic.

After a few seconds of confused murmurs, Master Hand grabbed the mic back from his brother to clarify. "He's kidding, guys. You will NOT die if you lose. However, you will be eliminated from the tournament."

"Now then, the moment you've all been waiting for: the brackets!" Crazy Hand exclaimed, pointing to the giant television screen above him. Everyone looked up and saw the first round matchups:

 **East Bracket:**

Jigglypuff vs Incineroar

Fox vs Villager

Wario vs Captain Falcon

Mario vs Pit

Falco vs King Dedede

King K. Rool vs Mr. Game & Watch

Mewtwo vs Paulentina

Pikachu vs Ness

 **West Bracket:**

Lucario vs Luigi

Snake vs Little Mac

Wolf vs Lucas

Sonic vs Samus

Ice Climbers vs Link

Ike vs Kirby

Donkey Kong vs Ridley

Ganondorf vs Marth

"We have an amazing tournament to present for you, ladies and gentlemen!" Master Hand told the crowd. "Those matches will begin tomorrow!"

"Have a woooooooooonderful evening, ladies and gentlemen. We'll see you tomorrow," Crazy Hand told everyone.

As everyone exited the stadium and the other fighters walked to the locker room, Incineroar felt a poke on the ankles. He looked down to see the source of the poking was his first round opponent, Jigglypuff.

"You know, I've been doing these tournaments for about two decades," the pink Pokémon bragged to her opponent.

"So?" Incineroar asked.

"So, I wish you good luck. Because you'll need it."

"I could tell you the same thing. No offense, but it looks like I can launch you as if you were a soccer ball," Incineroar replied with a chuckle.

Jigglypuff's body inflated, making her look like a beside-herself balloon. "Watch yourself, pussycat! I'll Sing you to sleep then blast you outta the park with a nice Rest!"

Before the two could fight further, Lucario stepped between the two. "That's enough, you guys! Save it for the Battlefield!"

"Pfft. Whatever," Jigglypuff said dismissively before taking her leave.

Once Jigglypuff was gone, Lucario turned to his fellow Pokémon. "You have to make sure your temper doesn't get the best of you, even if your opponent trash talks you!

"I'm sorry! But I'm used to immediately German suplexing my opponent if they talked smack."

"I get that, but Master Hand is strictly against fights that outside the tournaments and the training room. You could've been disqualified if that came to blows."

Incineroar sighed. "Really? Ugh, I can't wait to get my hands on that puff ball."

"Don't let yourself be deceived by appearances. Jigglypuff is quite agile. Her singing can put you to sleep for a few seconds, opening you up to a potentially devastating attack."

"And what did she say about her 'rest'?"

"That? Well, if her Rest attack connects, you could be ko'd as it is a rather strong attack."

"Is it true she's been doing this for nearly two decades?"

"Yea. She was one of the original fighters. She's been to every single tournament."

"Huh."

Lucario thought for a moment. "Hmm...do you still want a fight?"

"I could always go for a fight."

"Great! So, how about we do a round of sparring before our matches tomorrow?"

This was an easy answer for Incineroar. He always wanted a fight. And on the off chance that the two would face off in the future, it'd be helpful to get a feel of his fighting style.

"You're on."


	3. Training Session

Chapter 3

Lucario and Incineroar, back at the Smash Mansion, entered the training room. Much to Incineroar's surprise, the "training room" wasn't much of a room at all; it was a small room with a white glowing circle in the middle of the floor.

"This is the training room?!"

"Of course not," Lucario explained. "The circle, when stepped on, teleports you to the Battlefield, the arena that we train on. Now, before we go, a few things."

"Alright."

"Now, the objective is to launch your opponent out of the blast zone. There'll be a red light that'll signify the zone. If you get knocked out of the zone, you'll lose a stock, or a life. We'll be sparring for one stock."

"One stock. Got it."

"Great. Let's go."

The two stepped on the circle. The glowing circle glowed brighter, engulfing the two Pokémon. When Incineroar's eyes adjusted to the light, he now found himself on a stage with three platforms above him; one to his left, one to his right and one above the two in the center. Incineroar looked at the area in the back and found himself staring at a lovely blue sky.

"What is this place?"

"It's called 'Battlefield'. It's one of the most rudimentary stages we fight on in the tournament. Just jump up on one of the platforms and we can begin."

Incineroar jumped on the left platform and Lucario jumped up on the right one. The two stared each other down. Suddenly a voice boomed:

 **"3...2...1...GO!"**

Incineroar nodded and got down to business. He leaped towards the platform Lucario was on, launching a dropkick at him. Lucario rolled to the left, nimbly dodging the kick and jumped onto the highest platform. Incineroar jumped up to follow him, but stopped when Lucario launched a blue sphere of energy out of his palms, forcing the Heel Pokémon to change the direction of his jump to the bottom of the stage to avoid taking damage.

"Have you on the ropes already, champ?" Lucario joked.

"Dude, your more of a challenge than the last eight challenges to my title were combined."

"You flatter me. Here, I'll meet you down there."

Lucario jumped down to the floor. Incineroar was waiting for him, striking him with two claw swipes and a boot as soon as the Aura Pokémon's feet touched the floor. The boot sent Lucario tumbling, but he landed on his feet. Incineroar dashed towards his opponent, but was Lucario was quick to sidestep his attack. As soon as the fiery cat turned around, he was met with two jabs. Right as Incineroar recovered, he was grabbed and was struck in the chest with a palm strike. The strike sent Incineroar off the stage, but he was able to quickly grab the edge off of the stage with his right arm and pull himself up.

Lucario ran at his opponent but was quickly met with a spinning lariat, knocking him towards the center of the stage. Incineroar was feeling pumped now. He grabbed his opponent and threw him to the side when suddenly a line of fire launched from his belt, forming a set of ring ropes. Though quite confused, he instinctively back body dropped Lucario, sending him flying onto the highest platform.

"What the hell just happened?!"

Lucario shrugged. "In these arenas, weird things can happen to you. Wait 'till you see what happens when you get a Final Smash."

"A what?"

"I'll tell you about it later,"

Lucario jumped back onto the floor. Incineroar launched a punch just as Lucario shifted his body back and forth. Suddenly, the jackal disappeared in the blink of an eye. Before Incineroar could wonder where Lucario went, Lucario reappeared from outta nowhere and connected with a flying kick to the chin, sending his opponent flying off the stage. But like last time, he grabbed the ledge and pulled himself back up.

"Got ya," Lucario laughed.

"Grr, you tricky little-"

Incineroar ran towards Lucario. Expecting another attack, Lucario went for another Double Team maneuver. However, Incineroar, learning from his mistake, pulled his fist back, preventing Lucario from hitting the attack again. As soon as he was done, Lucario was grabbed by the throat and was spiked to the ground with a chokeslam. As soon as Lucario's back bounced off the ground, Incineroar spun him around, grabbed his waist and connected with a German suplex, sending Lucario up near the blast zone. However, Lucario recovered, angled himself towards the ground and dashed to the floor in front of his opponent. As he landed, Incineroar noticed that blue energy was just about spilling from Lucario's palms.

"Very powerful, my friend," Lucario said. "But you need to learn the old saying."

"What?"

"What doesn't kill you-"

The Aura Pokémon suddenly shot a huge sphere of energy at his opponent. Shocked, Incineroar barely reacted in time and leaped up onto the highest platform. Before he could even think about a new strategy, Lucario suddenly zipped up onto the platform in the blink of an eye.

"-makes you stronger."

Lucario speedily grabbed Incineroar by the throat and struck him with an explosive Force Palm. While the first one was pretty powerful, this one was exponentially stronger, knocking Incineroar out of the upper blast zone.

Incineroar now found himself back at the training room. He rolled off the circle right before Lucario teleported into the room with a victorious look on his face. He grabbed Incineroar's paw and helped him to his feet.

"Good game," Lucario said, extending his paw.

Incineroar looked at his paw for a moment before shaking his paw. "You too. That was my first loss in about a year."

"A year?"

"Yep. The challengers to my title mostly sucked. Anyway, I gotta say: I wanted competition and I got it from you. Thanks a lot."

"No problem, man. If you do what you did to me to Jigglypuff tomorrow, you'll definitely win."

"Thanks. Wanna go eat dinner now?"

"Sure."

As the two headed down to the mess hall, Incineroar asked, "So, who's your opponent?"

"His name's Luigi. Remind me to introduce him to you; he's a nice guy."

 **(Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you wouldn't mind, could you perhaps leave a review rating my writing so that I could improve upon it, especially the fight scenes. Anyway, look out for the first round match between Incineroar & Jigglypuff; it's coming very soon! Cheers!)**


	4. First Round! Incineroar vs Jigglypuff!

As Lucario said, Luigi was a pretty nice guy. He'd been fighting alongside his brother in these Smash tournaments for nearly 2 decades so he had tons of experience. He gave Incineroar some advice about his opponent tomorrow: though Jigglypuff's Rest was pretty strong, it had a low hit box range and Jigglypuff has to take a tiny nap after it, so if Rest missed, capitalize on it. Incineroar thanked him for the advice and wished him luck tomorrow.

Well, it was soon the next day and it was time for the first round match. Incineroar's match was up first so he and Jigglypuff stepped up to the teleporter first. When they arrived, Master Hand met them.

"Okay guys, you are the first matchup in this tournament. Now, I want a good precedent set. So, I want you two to shake hands."

Incineroar nodded and offered his paw. Jigglypuff looked at it for a few seconds before reluctantly shaking it.

"I wish you both the best of luck," Master Hand told the two Pokémon before gesturing towards the teleporter. The two stepped on and quickly found themselves on Battlefield.

"You're going down, you little puffball thing," the Heel Pokémon told his opponent.

"I'll sing you off to the blast zone," the singer countered.

 **"** **3...2...1...GO!"**

Jigglypuff jumped towards her opponent and quickly connected with a Pound attack. She hoped that it'd stun the fiery cat, but it seemed to do the opposite; Incineroar immediately responded with two claw swipes and a boot to the face before Jigglypuff could retreat to the other side of the stage.

"Is that really all you have?" Incineroar asked with a chuckle.

Jigglypuff puffed up indignitly. "Pff, hardly."

Incineroar sighed and charged towards her. Jigglypuff, realizing that she couldn't overpower her opponent, took a few jumps away from him and quickly started up a Sing. Having been warned about it by Lucario and Luigi earlier, he quickly backed away from her. With some distance established, Jigglypuff started to spin around and charged at the cat with a Rollout. Incineroar jumped over it the first time, but didn't expect her to turn around the attack so quickly. As soon as he landed, she clipped his legs with the attack, knocking the Heel Pokémon to his back.

Jigglypuff ran up and tried to connect with Sing. But Incineroar was able to avoid the singing by getting out of range. As soon as the attack was done, Incineroar grabbed Jigglypuff and threw her to the side where a pair of ring ropes were formed. Off the rebound, the cat connected with a back body drop, sending the pink Pokémon to the very top platform.

Incineroar jumped up onto the left platform and leapt up to the top platform, hoping to connect with a diving body splash. But Jigglypuff was ready and connected with Rest, launching Incineroar high into the air. While Rest might've put smaller fighters out of the match, Incineroar's size worked to his advantage as he was able to fall back down before he was out of the blast zone.

When he landed, Incineroar felt a continuous wave of pain. He looked up and found that a flower had grown on his head, another thing he was warned about. Before he could rip the flower off, the pink Pokémon charged with another Rollout. Instinctively, the cat slid on the floor and launched Jigglypuff back with a baseball slide kick. Incineroar then grabbed Jigglypuff by her hair tuft, chokeslammed her and hit her with a running knee strike. With Jigglypuff knocked back, Incineroar ripped the flower off his head, ending the pain he was having.

Incineroar knew he had to finish this. He charged at him and leapt up high in the air. Expecting a body splash, Jigglypuff went for Rest. But Incineroar expected this and changed the direction of his jump, now landing in front of her. With the opportunity to capitalize now that the puffball was asleep, Incineroar stepped back, ran forward and kicked Jigglypuff as hard as he could into the sky. Jigglypuff bounced off his foot as if she was a football and flew up way past the upper blast zone.

 **"** **Incineroar wins!"**

Incineroar was nearly immediately engulfed in white light. When the light was cleared, he found himself back in the stadium where throngs of adoring fans greeted him with cheers. With it being in his nature, he played to the crowd with several poses before heading off to the locker room. As he left, he bumped into Jigglypuff, who was limping off to the trainer's room.

"Hey, good game out there," Incineroar told his opponent. "You're really good. I can definitely tell that you've been doing this for 20 years."

Jigglypuff looked at him wearily before answering, "Yea, you too. Man, that kick hurt," she muttered to herself as she headed inside the trainer's room, closing the door behind her.

As he entered the locker room, Lucario met him. "Great job out there! You totally took my and Luigi's advice out there and stomped her!"

"Thanks man. She put up some fight, though. That Rest hurt like something!"

 **Next chapter, we find out what happens between Lucario and Luigi as well as who Incineroar will be facing next round: either the space pilot Fox or the Animal Crossing mayor Villager. Leave your thoughts on the chapter in the review section and I'll see you next time!**


End file.
